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ORATION 


DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE 


City  Council  and  Citizens  of  Boston, 


WITH    COMPLIMENTS    OF 


John  J.  Teevens,  Jr. 


Common  Council,  Ward   14. 


BOSTON: 
PRINTED   BY   ORDER   OF   THE   CITY   COUNCIL. 


MDCCCLXXXIX. 


( 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Boston  Library  Consortium  Member  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/orationdelivered1889swif 


ORATION 


DEUVKRED    BEFORE    THE 


City  Council  and  Citizens  of  Boston, 


ONE   HUNDRED  AND   THIRTEENTH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE 
DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE, 


JULY  4,  1889. 


GEI.    JOHI     L.     SWIFT. 


BOSTON: 
PRINTED   BY   ORDER   OF   THE   CITY   COUNCIL. 


MDCCCLXXXIX. 


53S1S 


CITY     OF     BOSTON. 


In  Board  of  Aldermen,  July  15,  1889. 
Ordered,  That  the  thanks  of  the  City  Council  be  hereby 
expressed  to  Gen.  John  L.  Swift,  for  the  patriotic  and 
eloquent  Oration  delivered  by  him  before  the  city  authori- 
ties on  the  Fourth  of  July,  in  commemoration  of  the  One 
Hundred  and  Thirteenth  Anniversary  of  American  Inde- 
pendence, and  that  he  be  requested  to  furnish  a  copy 
thereof  for  publication. 

Passed  unanimously.     Sent  down  for  concurrence. 

HOMER    ROGERS, 

Chairman. 

In  Common  Council,  September  12,  1889. 

Concurred  unanimously. 

HORACE   G.  ALLEN, 

President. 

Approved  September  14,   1889. 

THOMAS  N.  HART, 

Mayor. 
A  true  copy. 

Attest : 

JOHN   T.  PRIEST, 

Ass't  City  fMgffci. 


THE  AMERICAN   CITIZEN. 


To  have  advanced  from  three  millions  of  dis- 
contented Colonists,  stating  their  grievances  to 
mankind,  to  sixty-five  millions  of  contented  citizens 
commemorating,  with  unbounded  delight  and  amid 
scenes  of  exhilaration,  the  mighty  circumstance,  is 
proof  of  "  what  a  day  may  bring  forth." 

In  obedience  to  usage,  and  by  invitation  of  the 
Mayor  of  Bostou,  we  gather  to  do  honor  to  the 
Fourth  of  July,  1776,  because  of  an  event  of  such 
magnitude  that  it  changed  the  current  of  history  and 
reconstructed  the  map  of  the  world.  Without  that 
event,  there  would  not  have  been  an  American 
nation,  as  we  know  it;  and  by  that  event  new  mean- 
ing was  given  to  human  rights,  and  a  grander  range 
and  loftier  hope  to  human  government.  This  day, 
because  of  that  event,  is  set  apart  for  celebration, 
and  it  is  our  duty  to  celebrate.  For  that  purpose 
we  are  here  —  not  to  sermonize,  not  for  antiquarian 
information,  nor  to  warm  up  general  history. 

We  have  met  for  congratulation  upon  the  national 


6  ORATION. 

record  already  made,  and  for  encouragement  con- 
cerning the  record  to  be  made,  by  a  people  drawing 
their  political  life  from  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence just  read  in  our  hearing.  If  anywhere  a 
patriotic  praise-meeting  is  proper,  and  a  lecture  or 
treatise  out  of  place,  it  is  here. 

A  long  line  of  eloquent  citizens  has  performed  this 
task  of  recognition,  and  there  seems  to  be  no 
sentiment  of  enthusiasm  left  unexpressed,  nor 
incident  of  interest  unmentioned.  On  a  like  service 
to  this,  a  former  speaker  observed  of  the  mission  of 
contemporary  nations:  "France  says,  rI  polish  the 
world; '  Germany  says,  ?  I  educate  the  world; '  Eng- 
land says,  ? I  circumnavigate  the  world;'  America 
says,  c  I  liberate  the  world.' '  These  achievements 
fall  far  short  of  the  sublime  purpose  of  the  "Momen- 
tous Declaration."  That  glorious  message  to  the 
world  expressed,  for  the  first  time,  a  measureless 
future  for  man  organized  by  consent  under 
laws  and  constitutions.  As  the  third  and  last 
of  the  primal  and  inseparable  rights  of  men,  it 
declared  "  pursuit  of  happiness  "  to  be  the  end  of 
the  institution  of  government.  This  complete  and 
original  statement  of  final  governmental  concern 
gives  to  this  day  its  significance  and  abiding  force. 

We  are  Americans  in  fact  as  well  as  by  title,  just 
so  far  as  we  have  faith  in  the  "  self-evident  truths," 


JULY    4,     18  89.  7 

the  proclamation  of  which  makes  this   day   memo- 
rable. 

Ah!  Declarations  of  Independence  alone  do  not 
make  history.  "When  Benjamin  Franklin  was  told 
that  the  war  for  independence  had  been  success- 
fully closed :  "  Say  rather,"  said  he,  "  the  War  of  the 
Revolution ;  the  war  for  independence  has  yet  to  be 
fought."  In  the  bitterness  of  severe  discipline,  it 
was  learned  that  no  mere  announcement  of  rights, 
nor  years  of  harrowing  and  destructive  war,  nor 
brilliant  strategy  over  Cornwallis,  nor  reluctant 
acknowledgment  of  independence  wrung  from  a 
monarch,  could  bring  peace,  plenty,  and  order  to  the 
American  struggle.  The  distress  and  despair  of  the 
"  League  of  Friendship  "  was  so  widespread  that 
union  and  prosperity  under  a  common  government 
seemed  hopeless.  It  is  not  for  us  to  dwell  upon 
the  bankruptcy,  poverty,  hardships,  and  dissensions 
which  marked  the  years  of  the  Confederation,  when 
our  fathers  had  ceased  to  be  English  subjects,  but 
had  not  become  American  citizens. 

Dark,  indeed,  were  the  clouds  that  lowered  over 
this  critical  stage  of  the  great  experiment  for  self- 
government.  The  obstacles  to  the  consummation  of 
nationality  and  citizenship  seemed  so  near  to  being 
insurmountable  that  Washington  had,  with  regard  to 
the  condition  of  affairs,  grave  misgivings. 


8  ORATION. 

In  a  letter  written  in  1783  to  Lafayette,  "Wash- 
ington said :  "  We  are  placed  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth,  and  have  a  character  to  establish;  but 
how  we  shall  acquit  ourselves  time  must  discover. 
The  probability  is  (at  least  I  fear  it) ,  that  local  or 
State  politics  will  interfere  too  much  with  the  more 
liberal  or  extensive  plan  of  government  which  wis- 
dom and  foresight,  freed  from  the  mist  of  prejudice, 
would  decide.  .  .  .  The  honor,  peace,  and  true 
interest  of  the  country  must  be  measured  by  a  conti- 
nental scale,  and  every  departure  therefrom  weakens 
the  Union,  and  may  ultimately  break  the  bonds  that 
hold  us  together.  To  arrest  these  evils,  to  frame  a 
new  constitution  that  will  give  consistency,  stability, 
and  dignity  to  the  Union,  and  sufficient  power  to  the 
great  councils  of  the  nation  for  general  purposes,  is 
to-day  incumbent  on  every  man  who  desires  well  to 
his  country,  and  will  meet  with  my  aid  so  far  as  it 
can  be  rendered  in  the  private  walks  of  life." 

It  has  been  said,  "  that  the  whole  earth  is  a 
monument  of  great  characters."  Washington  is 
greatest  as  a  founder  of  this  nation,  and  the 
greatness  of  the  nation  is  his  proudest  monu- 
ment. Only  when  he  left  the  walks  of  private  life 
for  the  highest  public  station  was  the  failure  of  self- 
government  by  our  fathers  arrested.  He  came  to 
the   heights    of  civil  power  at  the  bidding   of    the 


JULY    4,     1889.  9 

people,  who  saw  in  him  a  true  leader.  There  are 
those  who  never  tire  of  reminding  us  that  George 
Washington  was  an  Englishman.  Lord  Chesterfield, 
when  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  was  asked  who 
was  the  greatest  man  in  Ireland,  and  replied,  "  The 
last  man  who  arrives  from  England,  whoever  he 
may  be."  Equally  Anglo-maniacal  is  the  fondness, 
in  our  day,  to  blazon  as  the  last  and  leading  merit  of 
Washington  that  he  was  English.  He  was  born  a 
subject  of  Great  Britain;  but  his  early  life,  in  its 
dependence  upon  personal  exertions  and  its  social 
surroundings,  was  in  strong  contrast  to  English 
social  pretensions,  and,  thank  God,  he  helped  to 
found  another  and  better  citizenship  for  himself  and 
all  Americans.  Specialists  have  collected  data  about 
him,  eulogists  have  commented  on  his  self-control 
and  magnanimity,  poets  over  his  virtues  have  sounded 
unstinted  praise,  but  vain  is  the  attempt  to  com- 
pute our  debt  to  Washington.  He  had  paid  $72,000 
in  personal  expense  during  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  the  unpaid  soldiers  knew  he  had  refused  recom- 
pense. The  people  knew  that  he  had  spurned  offers 
or  suggestions  to  be  king  or  dictator,  and  their  be- 
lief in  him  was  without  flaw  of  distrust. 

Honoring  and  endeared  to  him,  they  followed  him 
in  taking  the  great  step  towards  national  consolida- 
tion within  guarded  constitutional  bounds.     When, 


10  ORATION. 

with  his  tall  and  commanding  form,  he  bent  over 
the  jsacred  page  to  record  his  vow  of  fidelity  to  the 
Union  and  the  Constitution,  he  was  the  first  to 
pledge  support  to  the  nation,  as  it  then  received  the 
breath  of  life.  He  thns  became,  to  quote  the  words 
of  his  honored  successor,  Benjamin  Harrison,  w  The 
First  American  Citizen."  In  the  then  Federal  capi- 
tol,  April  30,  1789,  when,  by  authority  of  the  people, 
George  Washington  assumed  the  functions  of  the 
Federal  President,  there  was  inaugurated  with  its 
undreamed  destinies  that  unique,  potential  citizen- 
ship which  we  now  enjoy. 

Then  came  the  fusion  of  the  two  forces  of  pro- 
vincial autonomy  and  continental  power,  which,  in 
its  results,  and  through  its  inexhaustible  resources, 
still  continues  to  amaze  the  world. 

The  story  of  America  takes  its  admirers  into 
the  regions  of  wonder  and  romance.  In  the  fifth 
century,  Clovis  founded  the  French  Monarchy. 
Eleven  hundred  years  have  passed  since  Egbert 
was  "styled  King  of  England."  Ancestors  of 
Prussian  rulers  built  homes  on  the  Danube  more 
than  a  thousand  years  back.  The  American  Re- 
public has  existed  a  century  ;  and  France,  Eng- 
land, Germany,  individually,  show  fewer  millions 
of  population  and  fewer  billions  of  property  than 
does    our   young   nation.     In   count   of  heads  Asia 


JULY    4,    1889.  11 

far  exceeds  us.  In  display  of  precious  stones  the 
diamonds  of  an  Indian  prince,  flashing  the  light 
of  ages,  outshine  even  the  gems  of  a  centennial 
ball.  To  see  galleries  of  art  and  baronial  castles, 
and  to  know  the  courtly  manners  of  highest  breed- 
ing, older  countries  must  be  visited.  For  remains  of 
ancient  architecture,  mouldering  in  magnificent 
ruins,  we  go  to  Babylon  and  Egypt.  But  ask 
where  agriculture  reaps  its  greatest  harvests,  where 
mines  pour  out  the  most  abundant  treasures,  where 
machinery  is  most  active  and  railroads  are  most 
numerous,  and  telegraph  and  telephone  wires  are 
busiest  in  interchanging  communications  the  world 
over,  and  the  answer  is  found  to  be,  the  land  in 
which  we  live.  The  alleviation  of  the  human  race, 
and  not  the  splendor  of  its  decay,  is  our  chiefest 
jewel. 

Nineteen  millions  of  daily  earners  of  wages, 
delving  beneath  the  earth,  tilling  the  soil,  toiling 
in  factory,  foundry,  furnace,  and  in  all  mechani- 
cal arts,  and  paid  better  than  elsewhere  for  their 
service  ;  increasing  commerce  on  inland  seas  and 
navigable  rivers,  with  busy  craft  to  vex  their  sur- 
face for  four  thousand  four  hundred  miles,  — 
these  make  interesting  even  dry  statistics.  Expan- 
sion does  not  weaken  our  national  system.  Wher- 
ever   the    American    citizen     halts    in    his    search 


12  ORATION. 

for  settlement,  the  free  school,  the  right  to  unim- 
paired religious  liberty,  home-rule  by  equal  and 
honest  ballot,  and  the  reserved  force  to  establish 
the  lawful  will  of  the  majority,  spring  up  as  the 
source  and  safeguards  of  social  order.  Forty-two 
sovereign  and  self-ruled  commonwealths  make  our 
sisterhood  of  States,  bounded  by  two  oceans,  and 
stretching  from  the  tropical  borders  of  the  South- 
ern gulf,  until  our  territory  touches  the  frozen 
deserts  of  the  Northern  pole.  With  this  vast 
reach  of  power,  never  could  the  words  "  one  and 
indivisible  "  more  justly  describe  our  national  unity 
and  strength  as  on  this  day  we  celebrate.  The 
American  eagle  of  right  spreads  its  eager  wings  for 
a  sunward  flight  to-day,  while  our  hymns  tell  us  :  — 

"  Goodly  wore  thy  tents,  O  Israel ! 

Spread  along  the  river's  side ; 
Bright  thy  star  which  rose  prophetic, 

Herald  of   dominion  wide. 
Fairer  are  the  homes  of  freedom, 

Scattered  o'er  our  broad  domain ; 
Brighter  is  our  rising  day-star, 

Ushering  in  a  purer  reign." 

"  Not  purer  reign !  "  exclaim  those  who  regard 
themselves  as  the  "  saving  remnant,"  and  who  dis- 
trust numbers  and  fear  majorities.  "  Is  the  whiskey 
scandal,  the  Tweed  ring,  or  the  electoral  peculiar- 
ities of  1876    forgotten?"  they  ask.      Not   at   all! 


JULY    4,    1889.  13 

The  whiskey  scandal,  born  in  the  wild  period  of 
inflation,  is  not  forgotten;  but  it  is  remembered  with 
satisfaction  that  it  exists  no  longer.  The  Tweed 
ring  is  not  forgotten,  nor  the  uprising  that  drove 
its  participants,  now  to  Canada,  now  to  Europe, 
and  now  to  Sing  Sing.  The  election  of  1876, 
with  its  six  of  one  and  half  a  dozen  of  the  other, 
in  its  sharp  practice  and  its  arithmetical  conclusion 
of  eight  to  seven  is  not  forgotten;  but  with  grat- 
ification it  is  recognized  that  law  will  prevent 
hereafter  a  similar  strain  upon  our  system. 

The  earlier  views  of  the  national  situation  give 
an  impression  that,  as  a  rule,  the  burden  upon 
those  by  whom  they  were  expressed  was  to  state, 
with  great  precision  and  frequency,  the  certainty 
of  our  national  doom.  Mournfully  they  maintained 
that  our  fate  was  sealed,  and  according  to  the 
oratorical  programme  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
century,  we  ought  not  at  this  time  to  be  as  a 
.nation  alive  and  well.  Rhetoric  has  often  pointed 
the  people  to  supposed  ruin  staring  them  in  the 
face;  but  the  people  have  persistently  declined  to  be 
ruined,  and  are  very  far  from  it  on  this  recurrence 
of  our  day  of  jubilee.  It  has  been  customary  — 
and  the  habit  lingers  —  to  paint  "  politics "  in  the 
blackest  colors.  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  the  Trojan 
Horse,   and    the   Whited    Sepulchre    are    a   few    of 


14  ORATION.- 

the  unsavory  parallels  with  which  partisan  spirit 
has  been  associated.  Long  ago  our  temple  of  lib- 
erty was  to  have  been  laid  waste  by  party  rancor 
and  infamy.  ^Notwithstanding  these  storm-signals, 
portending  tempest  and  havoc,  more  than  three- 
score millions  of  Americans  see  that  fair  temple 
rising  to  grand  proportions,  with  untarnished  walls 
resting  on  unmoved  foundations. 

The  last  national  canvass,  one  of  great  political 
interest  and  activity,  is  conceded  to  have  been  one 
of  great  political  courtesy.  It  was,  more  than  any 
political  contest  since  the  Monroe  "  era  of  good 
feeling,"  orderly,  free  from  riotous  proceeding,  and 
mainly  void  of  personalities.  Twice  within  a  few 
years  we  have  seen  political  parties  change  from 
holding  power  to  losing  it,  with  no  friction,  bad 
blood,  or  disturbance.  The  second  President  of 
the  United  States  left  Washington  in  haste  to 
avoid,  it  is  said,  the  necessity  of  being  polite  to 
the  third  President.  The  twenty-second  President 
invited,  previous  to  his  successor's  installation  into 
the  presidential  chair,  the  twenty-third  President 
to  lunch  at  the  White  House.  Ex-President 
Cleveland  waited  to  witness  the  inauguration 
ceremonies,  and  to  listen  to  the  address  to  the 
country  of  President  Harrison.  This  is  an  im- 
provement in  presidential  manners.     Serious    faults 


JULY    4,    1889.  15 

in  party  conduct  and  questionable  party  tactics 
are  slowly  but  surely  being  corrected.  The  press, 
now  our  strongest  conservative  force,  by  giving 
publicity  to  political  indiscretions,  assists  the  tend- 
ency towards  reform  within  party  lines,  where 
reform   means    a   genuine   political   advancement. 

Whoever  with  care  examines  the  orations  made 
before  our  authorities  on  this  day,  —  a  list  of  which 
has,  by  the  courtesy  of  an  official  of  the  Public  Li- 
brary, been  furnished  me,1  —  will  not  fail  to  observe 
the  apprehension  once  prevalent,  that  an  ambitious 
soldier,  in  full  regimentals,  was,  at  some  period,  to 
cast  his  gleaming  sword  into  the  political  scale  to 
lift  despotism  into  power.  The  "man  on  horse- 
back," as  the  "  Atlantic  Caesar,"  has  been  a  familiar 
spectre  of  the  past.  Nine  soldiers,  all  generals  by 
title,  have  been  elected  Presidents  of  the  United 
States.  Had  they  lived  out  their  terms,  and 
should  the  present  incumbent  conclude  his  limit  of 
service,  it  would  make  forty-eight  out  of  one  hun- 
dred and  four  years  of  our  national  existence  under 
rule  of  military  chieftains.  Who  of  them  has  turned 
out  despot  or  dictator?  Was  it  George  Washing- 
ton, the  hero  of  Yorktown?  or  Andrew  Jackson, 
the  hero  of  the  New  Orleans?  or  William  Henry 
Harrison,  the  hero  of  Tippecanoe?  or  Zachary  Tay- 

1  See  Appendix. 


16  ORATION. 

lor,  the  hero  of  Monterey?  or  Grant,  the  hero  of 
Appomattox? —  all  of  whom  were  at  times  officers  in 
the  regular  army.  The  volunteer  generals, — Pierce, 
Hayes,  Garfield,  Benjamin  Harrison,  —  all  of  them, 
with  their  men,  gallantly  fought  for  the  nation.  Did 
any  one  of  them  become  "  the  man  on  horseback,"  to 
lead  us  into  "  Csesarism"?  Our  great  soldiers  have 
been,  and  shall  continue  to  be,  men  of  peace  and 
patriots,  and  the  dread  of  a  military  tyrant  has  gone 
forever. 

It  was  also  assumed,  in  the  old  days,  that  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  from  its  corrupt  political 
combinations,  would  be  a  peril  to  the  nation.  The 
Bank  of  1816  had  a  capital  of  $35,000,000,  and  Gov- 
ernment owned  $7,000,000,  —  a  fifth  of  the  stock. 
For  years,  by  a  portion  of  our  countrymen,  this 
institution  was  regarded  as  the  untoward  instrument 
by  which  ultimately  the  Republic  would  fall.  Na- 
tional banks  to-day  number  over  3,000,  and  have  a 
capital  of  $764,000,000,  their  deposits  amounting  to 
$1,300,000,000,  and  their  loans  to  $1,500,000,000, 
and  every  dollar  of  bills  issued  is  as  good  as  gold. 
These  banks  are  for  business  purposes,  and  together 
have  no  more  political  influence,  as  banks,  than  a 
school  picnic,  a  base-ball  match,  or  a  circus  proces- 
sion. The  prophets  of  evil  who  foretold  that  at 
the  first   shock  of  civil  strife  the  nation   would  go 


JULY    4,     1889.  17 

to  pieces  like  a  house  made  of  cards,  were  plentiful 
at  home  and  abroad.  The  shock  of  battle  came. 
Eleven  millions  of  determined  people  put  their  fight- 
ing men  against  the  Republic.  Four  years,  with  a 
courage  that  may  have  been  equalled  but  never  out- 
done, they  contested  the  ground,  until  the  scene  of 
hostility  was  drenched  in  blood;  yet  this  nation 
repelled  the  shock,  and  stands  to-day  strong,  free, 
and  imperishable. 

"Are  you  sorry  you  turned  out?  "  asked  the  father 
of  James  Hay  ward,  one  of  the  Acton  heroes  who  fell 
on  the  19th  of  April,  1775.  The  father  was  told  to 
look  at  the  powder-horn  and  bullet-pouch  of  the 
soldier.  They  were  both  nearly  empty.  The  dying 
young  patriot  said :  "  I  started  with  a  pound  of 
powder  and  forty  bullets.  Xou  see  what  is  left! 
Tell  mother  not  to  mourn  too  much.  I  am  not  sorry 
I  turned  out.  I  die  willingly  for  my  country."  It 
was  men  like  that  who  made  this  nation,  and  just 
such  men,  on  the  battle-fields  of  the  Civil  War, 
went  down  to  prevent  the  unmaking  of  the  grandest 
Republic  in  its  deeds  and  possibilities  that  has  yet 
existed.  It  is  time  to  stop  the  babble  of  men  who 
tell  us  that  the  commemoration  of  soldiers  who 
fought  in  the  war  that  led  to  the  Union,  or  in  the 
war  that  saved  it,  tends  to  keep  alive  the  animosities 
of  the   past.     Honor   to   loyal  soldiers   keeps    alive 


18  OEATION. 

patriotism,  and  only  that.  A  few  days  since,  a 
Senator  of  the  United  States  from  South  Carolina, 
in  dedicating  a  monument  to  the  dead  of  the 
Confederate  army,  said :  "  We  regard  these  our  dead 
as  martyrs."  So  be  it.  ~No  men  fought  harder 
and  died  braver  for  their  cause  than  the  armed 
Confederates.  The  fearful  loss  of  our  brothers 
in  arms  attests  their  fighting  qualities.  But  their 
"  cause  "  was  to  shatter  the  Union,  and  by  national 
valor  it  became,  to  remain  forever,  the  "lost  cause." 
Our  dead  are  martyrs  to  a  cause  holy  to  loyal 
memory.  Ours  were  martyrs  to  a  cause,  the  triumph 
of  which  was  the  greatest  honor  to  those  by  whom 
it  was  maintained,  and  the  greatest  blessing  of  the 
children  of  the  men  who  made  war  upon  that  cause. 

Union  soldiers  made  impossible  the  attempt  by 
arms  to  found  two  national  days  in  this  land.  One 
is  enough,  and  that  one  is,  and  is  to  be,  the  Fourth 
of  July ! 

Independence  day  is  too  near  Decoration  day  for 
us,  while  honoring  the  founders  of  the  American 
Union  in  1789,  to  forget  those  who  saved  the 
Union  in  1865.  It  would  be  a  strange  sight  if, 
on  an  occasion  of  this  nature,  no  Union  veterans 
were  present.  From  many  loyal  battle-fields  such 
soldiers  are  here  to-day  by  special  invitation. 
Some     are     here     from     the     19th     Army     Corps. 


JULY    4,     1889.  19 

With  us  is  their  old  commander,  who  in  an 
exigency  called  for  a  thousand  men  as  a  Forlorn 
Hope  to  assault  works  from  which  our  troops 
had  been  twice  repulsed.  It  was  twenty-six 
years  ago  this  month,  when,  two  thousand  miles 
away  from  New  England  homes,  these  men  wrote 
letters,  thinking  they  might  be  the  last  to  be 
written  by  them,  and  then  waited  for  orders  to 
go  where  death  was  certain  to  many.  Surrender 
of  the  garrison  to  save  needless  slaughter  made 
this  movement  unnecessary;  but  the  men  who 
are  here  to-day,  were  ready  then,  with  their 
comrades  at  Port  Hudson,  for  duty.  They  had 
no  resentment  to  those  who  had  thinned  their 
ranks.  It  was  war.  They  ask  now  for  no 
right  they  would  not  willingly  share  with  their 
old  combatants;  but  it  would  be  a  lie  if  any 
of  them  should  say  that  the  cause  of  those 
who  fought  for  the  Stars  and  Bars  was  equal 
in  right  and  honor  to  that  for  which  they  were 
willing  to  do  and  to  die.  In  their  presence 
let  lips  be  stilled  that  would  tell  us  it  is  the 
same  thing  to  assail  this  nation  as  to  defend  it. 
Commercially  the  bunting  decorating  this  audience- 
room  with  the  national  colors  of  red,  white,  and 
blue  has  no  great  value.  But  in  memory,  and 
as    a   flag,   it   is   beyond   price.      This   day,  as  the 


20  ORATION. 

earth  in  its  revolution  turns  to  the  East,  every 
hour  of  the  twenty-four  the  sunlight  will  baptize 
with  radiance  this  symbol  of  the  nation.  It  is 
to  the  everlasting  honor  of  the  Union  soldier 
that  never  for  a  moment  was  he  disloyal  to  the 
old  flag.  The  world  knows,  and  God  knows, 
that  to  stand  between  that  flag  and  the  bullet 
aimed  at  it,  and  to  fire  that  bullet,  differs  in 
motive,  act,  and  consequence  as  much  as  mid- 
night darkness  differs  from  the  splendor  of 
mid-day.  To  stand  thus  meant  that  in  this  Re- 
public there  was  room  but  for  one  flag,  and 
that  the   Stars   and   Stripes. 

"  The  trials  of  the  future  will  be  exactly  pro- 
portioned to  the  advantages  of  the  future,"  is 
the  statement  of  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  in 
one  of  the  most  instructive  of  our  Fourth-of- 
July  orations.  Accepting  this  view,  from  our 
national  precedents  we  may  add  that  our  trials 
will  be  as  courageously  met  and  successfully 
mastered  in  the  future  as  in  the  past.  Our 
safety  from  falling  below  the  high-water  mark  we 
have  reached  lies  in  the  vitality  of  the  agitator 
and  the  preservative  effects  of  agitation.  To 
the  New  England  American,  agitation  is  a  normal 
condition,  and  our  obligation  to  this  quality  of 
character    is     incalculable.      The     Revolution    and 


JULY    4,    1889.  21 

the  Declaration  are  its  offspring.  We  look  back 
with  admiration  at  the  boldness  of  men,  who, 
for  theories,  with  a  few  flintlock  muskets, 
defied  the  trained  armies  of  a  king  victorious 
on  most  of  the  conspicuous  fields  where  his 
generals  had  fought.  Of  heroic  stamp  were  those 
old  agitators,  who,  educated  in  the  tumult  of 
town-meetings,  lifted  themselves  to  the  summit 
of  political  wisdom  to  define  the  rights  of  man 
and  his  province  of  government.  "  The  fanati- 
cism of  to-day  is  the  fashionable  creed  of  to- 
morrow," said  Wendell  Phillips,  an  agitator 
derided  and  hissed  in  early  life  for  a  moral 
courage  that  feared  nothing  and  dared  everything, 
and  when  dead  was  borne,  to  lie  in  state,  to  the 
historical   hall   where   his   fame   began. 

The  ideal  agitator  can  be  claimed  as  a  Boston 
specialty.  Thriving  on  east  wind,  believing  with 
Calvin  in  the  perseverance  of  the  saints,  and  for 
exercise  sharpening  the  beak  and  filing  the  claws 
of  the  proud  bird  of  freedom,  he  is  the  nearest 
approach  to  perpetual  motion  yet  produced.  Rude, 
egotistical,  very  angular,  he  introduces  himself  by 
brandishing  a  weapon  of  attack.  He  treads  on 
tender  feet,  and  smashes  idols,  never  failing  mean- 
while to  treat  with  more  harshness  his  natural 
friends     than     his      natural     enemies.      He     goes 


22  OKATION. 

into  the  worrying  business,  if  not  with  the 
rigor,  at  least  with  the  persistence,  of  the  old 
times  when  the  witch  was  disposed  of  by 
summary  exit  and  the  Quaker  by  expeditious  exile. 
But  the  agitator  believes  in  destroying  evils,  and 
never  accepts  any  terms  but  unconditional  sur- 
render. E-ufus  Choate  once  remarked  of  an  emi- 
nent Massachusetts  judge,  who  had  the  appearance 
of  a  lion  slightly  tamed,  "  We  all  feel  that  he  is 
ugly,  but  we  know  that  he  is  great."  We  are  all 
aware  that  the  political  and  social  agitator  is  un- 
comfortable, but  it  is  certain  that  he  is  needful. 
In  all  our  history  the  agitator  has  been  prominent. 
Far  away  back,  in  1636,  when  only  a  few  hamlets 
clustered  around  the  shores  that  bordered  Copp's, 
Beacon,  and  Fort  Hills,  Anne  Hutchinson  agitated 
among  her  sex  during  the  week  against  the  for- 
malism preached  on  Sunday.  Her  bold  speech 
shook  primitive  Boston  from  centre  to  circum- 
ference, and  from  then  Boston  has  never  been 
without  a  live,  but  distressingly  inconvenient,  agi- 
tator. Massachusetts  never  blindly  follows  the 
agitator,  but  the  State  is  famous  for  filing  to  the 
right  and  wheeling  into  line  with  advanced  or 
progressive  measures.  Massachusetts  may  never 
again  furnish  a  President  for  the  Republic,  or 
rule   from  weight  of  numbers.      She   may  be    out- 


JULY    4,    1889.  23 

stripped  in  population  by  younger  States,  and  may 
not  be  at  the  head  of  the  column  of  States  as  it 
marches;  but  in  loyalty  to  the  best  idea,  and  for 
grandeur  of  example,  will  be  still  at  the  front. 
Even  now  our  agitators  are  on  duty.  They  are 
crying  out  against  Ninevitish  sins,  and  loudly 
call  to  our  shirking  Jonahs,  "Awake,  thou 
sleeper!  " 

Whether  the  agitator  hoists  signals  to  arouse 
minute-men  to  arm  for  freedom,  or  sounds  with 
much  din  the  radical  gong  to  frighten  puffy  and 
unctions  conservatives  in  their  effort  to  block  and 
baffle  the  latest  movement,  he  always  does  more 
good  than  harm  in  tearing  down  in  order  to  build 
wiser  and  stronger.  He  may  be  premature  in  his 
activity,  and  be  over-anxious  in  his  vigilance; 
better  that  than  neglect  to  watch  the  citadel  which 
guards  our  rights.  If  the  agitator  thinks  that 
sappers  and  miners  are  at  work  to  weaken  the 
system  of  public  education,  which,  according  to 
Bancroft,  has  proved  the  secret  of  our  success  and 
glory,  let  him  shout  aloud  and  cease  not.  The 
danger  may  not  be  vital,  but  the  response  to  the 
call  to  rally  around  "the  old  red  school-house," 
with  its  modern  improvements,  may  prevent  after- 
plots  against  its  welfare.  It  will  teach  that  the 
American   plan  of  educated  childhood,  by  "prince, 


24  ORATION. 

or  potentate,  or  power,"  can  no  more  be  taken  from 
the .  American  mind  than  one  of  our  shining  stars 
can  be  taken  from  the  azure  of  our  flag.  There 
are  some  things  settled  —  settled  right,  and  settled 
forever.  Among  the  settled  things  is  the  public 
school  on  the  American  basis,  untrammelled  by 
either  party  or  sect. 

The  statutes  of  Massachusetts  should  state  as 
clear  and  distinct  as  Holy  Writ  that  compulsory 
education  must  not  be  evaded  in  its  main  purpose 
of  preparation  for  citizenship.  All  preliminary 
schools,  whether  public  or  private,  must  use  the 
language  of  the  nation  in  teaching,  and  there  must 
be  approval  by  the  State  of  books  and  of  branches 
taught.  If  our  present  legislators  are  not  suffi- 
ciently skilful  to  draw  a  bill  with  this  intent,  we 
should  select  those  who  have  the  sense  to  under- 
stand the  people,  and  the  agitator  will  see  that  it 
is  done.  The  agitator  has  great  staying  powers, 
and  nothing  but  death  can  stop  him  when  his 
conscience  is  awakened.  Men  with  their  brief 
authority  deny  him  the  right  to  preach  in  special 
places  paid  for  by  the  people.  He  sees  on  these 
public  grounds  persons  of  wealth  rolling  by  in 
carriages;  he  looks  on  bands  of  youth  at  sport, 
on  picnic  groups,  —  everywhere  he  sees  games  and 
amusements   indulged   in    at   seasonable   times,  *and 


JULY    4,    1889.  25 

he  asks,  "Here  in  Boston,  the  city  which  Samuel 
Adams  prayed  might  become  a  Christian  Sparta, — 
here  is  everything  lawful  but  criminals  and  Chris- 
tian teachers."  '*  "Why,"  he  asks,  "from  the  people's 
land  am  I,  and  those  who  wish  to  hear  me,  driven 
out  for  talking  about  ?  peace  on  earth  and  good- 
will to  men.' "  "  Is  there,"  he  continues,  "  in  Massa- 
chusetts, the  Constitution  of  which  enjoins  relig- 
ious freedom  and  the  public  worship,  a  spot  so 
sacred  to  pleasure  that  duty  to  the  Most  High  God 
is  out  of  place?  Any  spot  in  the  land  of  the 
pilgrims  where  the  landscape  gardener  or  artist 
is  more  to  be  revered  than  the  landscape  Maker? 
Any  place  where  He  who  ordered  the  seasons 
and  seed-time  and  harvests,  and  has  poured  the 
sunlight  and  glorified  field  and  bush  and  tree, 
cannot  be  honored  because  it  is  consecrated  to 
base-ball,  bicycles,  or  baby-wagons?"  If  he  is 
told  that  the  gospel  and  pleasure  parks  are  incom- 
patible, he  replies,  "I  will  appeal  to  the  millions 
who  on  the  Lord's  day  sing,  — 

'  Waft,   waft,   ye  winds  His  story, 
And  ye,   your  waters  roll, 
Till  like  a  sea  of  glory 
It  spreads  from  pole   to   pole,' 

to   know  who  and  what  it  is  that  rules  Boston, — 
Christianity   or   commissioners."     He,  the    agitator, 


26  OKATION. 

knows  that  the  majority  rules  Boston,  whatever 
for  the  moment  it  may  be  ;  and  he  also  knows 
that  even  one  with  God  on  his  side  becomes  at 
last  the  majority,  and  that  the  unconquerable 
purpose  of  agitation  is  to  make  the  majority 
right. 

Will  Boston  hold  six  hundred  acres  of  land, 
owned  by  the  people  who  have  been  taxed  for 
its  payment,  in  such  close  bonds  to  the  minor 
pleasures,  that  not  a  rod  of  it  can  be  had  on 
Sunday  upon  which  to  preach  the  gospel,  nor  a 
spot  be  found  where  men  of  labor  can  congregate 
on  the  Fourth  of  July  for  the  exercise  of  free 
speech  ?  This  is  to  be  answered  not  with  regard 
to    holiday  rights,   but   to   human   rights. 

This  is  not  the  time  or  place  to  ignore  con- 
troversies certain  to  confront  us.  It  would  be 
craven  to  omit  plain  speaking  upon  American 
issues  on  this  day  in  this  city.  Two  powerful 
and  baleful  forces,  each  alien  to  the  spirit  and 
design  of  the  Declaration,  are  active  in  all  our 
public  and  influential  channels,  not  so  much  to 
endanger  our  territorial  unity,  as  to  impair  its 
usefulness  by  dragging  down  to  a  level  of 
misrule  by  the  unchristian  prejudices  of  caste 
one  section  of  the  Republic,  and  by  power  of 
money  making  social    disorders   easier  everywhere. 


JULY    4,    1889.  27 

Sacredness  of  life,  security  to  liberty  by  restraint 
of  that  which  is  enemy  to  it,  and  the  least 
obstruction  to  reasonable  happiness  are  the  funda- 
mental principles  on  which  hang  American  law 
and  justice.  Two  pernicious  tendencies,  caste  and 
greed,  —  one  acting  on  the  color  line,  and  the 
other  trading  on  human  frailty,  —  are  the  eternal 
foes  of  all  for  which  the  Declaration  was  written 
and  the  Constitution  was  framed.  The  human 
weakness  upon  which  this  money-power  thrives 
has  been  the  bane  of  American  civilization,  from 
the  arrival  of  the  " Mayflower "  to  this  day.  ]^ot 
mine  the  task  to  picture  its  awful  record  of 
tears,  sorrow,  anguish,  broken  hearts,  and  of 
drops  of  blood  scarcely  dry  on  the  stained 
stones    of    your    streets. 

The  logical  conclusion  from  that  clause  in  the 
Declaration  which  enjoins  "pursuit  of  happiness," 
and  of  the  Constitution  interpreted  by  its  preamble, 
which  makes  it  incumbent  "  to  provide  for  the  com- 
mon welfare,"  is,  that  any  combination,  trust,  in- 
terest, traffic,  or  conceivable  movement  of  capital 
attempting  by  association  to  reap  unjust  profits  from 
the  people,  or  prosecuting  a  business  detrimental  to 
the  public,  is  so  essentially  un-American  that  its 
legal  interdiction  is  but  a  question  of  time.  And 
the   fact  that  a  moneyed  interest,  rising  to  billions 


28  ORATION. 

in  amount,  with  its  plethoric  purse  menaces  good 
government  from  the  remotest  hamlet  to  the  capital 
of  the  Republic,  ought  to  make  its  control  the  most 
important  of  all  our  issues. 

The  right  of  personal  liberty  to  trade  stops  at  the 
exact  spot  where  its  exercise  is  unsafe  to  the  public. 
The  jurisdiction  of   this  momentous   and  unsolved 
problem  lies   within   State    authority,   the   arena   of 
actual  conflict  being  local  decision;   and  there  the 
battle  will  be  fought  out  until  whatever  in  Massachu- 
setts harms  our  homes  or  jeopardizes  their  inmates 
will  be  driven   beyond   popular   consent   or    shelter 
of  law.     It  is  the  concern  of  the  nation  rather  than 
the  State  to  deal  with  the  monstrous  demand  of  caste, 
that  in  this  Republic,  life,  liberty,  and  happiness  shall 
have  one  meaning  for  thirteen  millions  of   citizens 
who  are  white,  and  wholly  another  meaning  to  seven 
millions   of    citizens   who    are  black.      Openly,  un- 
blushingly,  without  denial  or  apology,  caste  disobeys 
and  defies  the  Constitution  of   the  United   States. 
By   device    and    jugglery    of    ballots    if     possible, 
by  brutality  of  bullets   if   necessary,  minorities   in 
some  portions  of  this  country  are,  in  violation  of  the 
supreme  law,  made  to  become  majorities.    In  this  our 
land,  where  life,  liberty,  and  happiness  are  declared 
inalienable  rights,  on  this  day,  this  hour,  the  political 
machinery  of  some  States  and  their  ablest  intellect 


JULY    4,    1889.  29 

centre  on  methods  to  keep  a  certain  class  of  Amer- 
ican citizens  in  political  subjection  to  benefit  another 
and  less  numerous  class!  Failure  so  to  do  is  cor- 
rected  by  assassination  !  The  unavenged  murder  of 
a  distinguished  citizen  of  a  sovereign  State,  slain 
while  obtaining  proof  of  his  election  to  Congress, 
the  certificate  having  illegally  been  given  to  his 
opponent,  is  evidence  of  the  prostitution  of  political 
rights  in  our  country.  No  horror  of  the  "  middle 
passage,"  when  the  negro  was  taken  from  his  native 
wilds  to  be  sold  to  Christian  countries;  no  hour  of 
misery,  when,  as  property,  the  negro  lifted  up  his 
fettered  hands  to  God  for  help,  —  exceeds  the  inhu- 
manity by  which  one  portion  of  our  country  brands 
millions  of  American-born  population  with  deg- 
radation, and  blots  out  from  an  entire  race  the  in- 
spiration of  hope,  while  people  at  large  stand  dumb 
in  the  presence  of  the  shame. 

The  first  negro  color-bearer  to  fight  in  the  Union 
ranks  was  a  soldier  in  the  Louisiana  Brigade.  In 
reply  to  the  charge  of  his  captain  not  to  dishonor 
the  colors  in  action,  he  said :  "  I  will  carry  this  flag 
into  the  fight  and  bring  it  back  with  honor,  or  report 
in  heaven  the  reason  why."  It  cannot  be  that  the 
American  people  will  desert  the  race  from  which 
came  such  a  hero  in  black.  Here,  where  has  been 
raised  a  monument  to  Crispus   Attucks,  the  agita- 


30  ORATION. 

tors  who  would  not  be  still  while  four  millions  of 
American  citizens  of  African  descent  remained 
in  chains,  will  never  be  silent  over  the  attempt 
to  make  seven  millions  of  black  serfs  on  American 
soil. 

There  are  supreme  moments  in  the  life  of  nations, 
as  of  individuals,  when  by  vivid  lightning  in  mid- 
night darkness  new  bearings  are  revealed  to  the 
bewildered  traveller.  We  remember  that  a  howling 
mob  once  hunted  William  Lloyd  Garrison  through 
the  streets  of  Boston  for  his  life,  because  he  was  the 
foe  of  slavery.  ISow  we  see  him  seated  on  pedestal 
of  stone,  in  enduring  form,  on  our  wealthiest  avenue, 
surrounded  by  our  costliest  edifices,  and  as  by  a 
lightning  flash  we  discover  the  potency  of  eternal 
justice.  We  remember  the  humiliation  with  which 
we  saw,  through  the  streets  of  Boston,  lined  with 
soldiery  under  arms,  a  pursued  and  powerless  slave 
on  his  way  to  his  so-called  owner.  We  remember 
that  nine  years  after,  one  thousand  black  soldiers 
in  uniform  marched  through  the  same  streets  as  part 
of  the  Massachusetts  quota,  stepping  to  that  ringing 
chorus,  "  His  soul  goes  marching  on."  We  remem- 
ber that  these  and  other  soldiers  in  black  went 
marching  on,  leaving  on  the  battle-field  37,000 
dead,    ere   they    came   back   singing :  — 


JULY    4,    1889.  31 

"Blotted  out! 
All   without  and   all   within 
Shall  a  fresher  life   begin. 
Freer  breathes  the  universe, 
As   it  rolls  its    heavy  curse 
On  the   dead  and  buried  sin." 

Remembering  this,  we  may  trust  the  American 
people  answering  to  the  dictates  of  conscience  to 
suppress  the  cruelties  of  caste,  as  once  in  the  name 
of  God  they  sundered  the  chains  of  the  slave. 

Social  distinctions  are  beyond  legal  regulation. 
Our  right  to  select  our  friends  and  choose  our 
society  is  individual.  There  are  everywhere  mean 
and  contemptible  social  limitations,  founded  on 
color,  on  race,  and  on  bank-books,  which  will  exist 
until  the  world  is  much  better  than  it  now  is.  While 
the  family  with  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  cannot 
hope  to  be  at  home  in  the  drawing-rooms  of  the 
millionnaire,  we  cannot  expect  social  fusion  where 
caste  prevails  or  race  lines  are  rarely  crossed.  But 
there  is  one  place  where  American  citizenship  shall 
find  exact  equality  and  justice.  Poor  a  man  may  be, 
or  rich  beyond  the  "  dream  of  avarice ; "  swarthy  or 
pale ;  naturalized  or  by  birth  American,  —  one  spot 
there  will  yet  be  where  poverty  must  not  degrade  or 
riches  give  advantage,  where  complexion  neither 
helps  nor  harms,  where  citizenship  in  all  its  duties 


32  O  K  A  T  I  0  N  . 

and  prerogatives  is  a  common  possession  with 
unimpeded  rights,  and  that  spot  is  the  American 
ballot-box,  open  for  national  purposes,  under  the 
protection  of  the  American  flag  and  supervision  of 
national  authority! 

Agitation  will  yet  secure  this  political  equality, 
and  upon  this  anniversary  of  the  immortal  agita- 
tion of  our  fathers,  let  us  extol  that  inherent 
contention  planted  by  God  in  human  nature,  that 
makes  it  impossible  to  have  peace  without  first 
being  right.  Those  who  sneer  at  agitators  scoff 
at  their  betters.  Agitators  are  servants  of  that 
invisible  power  which  earliest  detects  danger  to 
free  institutions.  Volunteers  to  watch  on  the 
walls  that  surround  our  political  Zion,  they 
sound  alarm  at  the  least  suspicion  of  peril.  Their 
theatre  of  operation  is  every  foot  of  American 
soil,  and  their  thoughts  and  their  right  to  express 
them  are  as  unchained  as  the  folds  of  the 
American  flag.  Nothing  is  privileged  against 
their  criticism  or  censure.  The  ermine  of  the 
judge,  the  dignity  of  the  statesman,  the  robe  of 
the  priest,  do  not  exempt  from  attack  those  who 
wear  them.  The  platforms  of  politicians,  the 
platitudes  of  select  circles,  the  mystic  solemnities 
of  secret  orders,  the  pretensions  and  traditions 
of  faith,   the  warnings  of  pulpits,  and  the  author- 


JULY     4,     18  89.  33 

ity  of  synods  or  hierarchies  do  not  deter  the 
agitator.  His  determined  and  fearless  command 
"  Halt ! "  to  whoever  or  whatever  threatens  popu- 
lar government  is  the  surest  guarantee  of  national 
safety. 

The  threshold  of  our  second  national  century 
has  been  crossed.  We  start  upon  its  responsibilities 
with  sounder  and  juster  relations  between  capital 
and  labor,  with  wider  religious  and  broader  political 
influence,  with  more  effective  and  less  partisan 
civil  service,  with  better-equipped  school-buildings 
and  a  constantly  improving  educational  standard, 
with  closer  observation  and  truer  understanding  of 
common  burdens  upon  a  common  citizenship,  with 
an  increased  desire  to  make  new  homes  among 
working  men  and  women,  and  a  general  distri- 
bution of  advantages  among  the  people.  There  is 
also  a  growing  conviction  that  every  idea  of  a  moral 
and  political  nature  concerning  human  good  is  an 
imperative  command  to  duty,  that  never  leaves  its 
sphere   of  action,   but 

"Is  like 
A  star  new  born,  that  drops  into  its  place, 
And  which   once   circling  in  its   placid  round, 
Not  all  the  tumults  of  the   earth  can  shake." 

It  is  not  in  the  power  of  many  to  be  great  citi- 


34  ORATION. 

zens,  but  it  is  the  power  of  any  man  to  be  a  good 
citizen. 

To  the  youth  of  men,  generations,  and  races 
come  dreams  of  a  golden  age  and  visions  of 
promised  lands,  Arcadian  valleys,  ideal  republics, 
and  glowing  outlines  of  the  "  city  which  is  to  come." 
The  American  is  rare  who  has  not  ascended 
some  Pisgah  to  look  over  into  imaginary  Canaans. 
To  believe  in  the  conquest  over  evil  and  in  the 
reign  of  good  is  an  American  instinct.  Ah!  we 
have  to  find  that  our  Canaans  are  not  external,  but 
internal,  and  that  the  battle  against  evil  is  not  to 
be  fought  on  distant  ground,  but  next  door,  over  the 
way,  in  the  adjoining'  street,  and  the  immediate 
neighborhood.  We  find  that  within,  and  not  with- 
out, is  our  Celestial  City.     This  lesson  learned,  — 

"  'Tis  well!  from  that  day  forward  we  shall  know 
That  in  ourselves  our  safety  must  be  sought; 
That  by  our  own  right  hand  it  must  be  wrought; 
That  we  must  stand  unpropped,  or  be  laid  low." 

That  is  the  doctrine  of  personality  and  primary 
citizenship.  The  battle-ground  where  the  immediate 
interest  of  the  citizen  is  decided  is,  in  the  main, 
local.  Whatever  is  possible  in  moral  struggle  to 
help  society  forward  and  upward,  must  be  won  close 
at   hand.     There   the   power  of  the   people  has  its 


JULY     4,     18  89.  35 

most  natural  expression,  and  there  the  will  of  the 
majority  is  most  certain  to  be  respected. 

There  must  be  a  controlling  motive  in  public 
duties.  In  the  constitution  of  things  it  is  a  com- 
manding necessity  to  cherish  and  shield  the  dom- 
icile. Thereon  all  legitimate  business,  all  sound 
legislation,  all  proper  municipal  supervision,  bears 
directly  or  indirectly.  The  public  policy  or  private 
pursuit  that  stimulates  the  founding  of  homes,  or 
tends  towards  their  support  and  defence  when 
established,  is  of  the  highest  order  of  permanent 
blessings. 

The  rapidly  increasing  prosperity  in  cooperative 
banking  and  building  among  the  earning  class  is 
becoming  a  powerful  factor  in  our  civilization. 
The  membership  in  these  mutual  enterprises  in 
this  State  is  thirty  thousand,  and  the  beneficent 
features  of  these  associations  cannot  be  over- 
stated. It  is  now  demonstrated  that  with  ordinary 
wages,  a  healthy,  sober,  and  industrious  person 
can,  with  little  more  outlay  than  average  rent, 
become  owner  of  a  comfortable  home.  The  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, with  us  to-day,  has  long  been 
connected  with  these  institutions,  and  from  his 
untiring  zeal  in  their  behalf  he  knows  well  their 
value  in  aiding  temperance  and  in  making  good 
citizens.     This   method  of  capitalizing  the  surplus 


36  ORATION. 

of  wages,  and  by  it  inducing  young  men  to  become 
house-owners,  serves  to  make  them  careful,  sober, 
and  thoughtful  concerning  their  material  well- 
being.  When  a  citizen  lives  on  his  own  land,  in 
his  own  house,  and  pays  taxes,  he  is  not  likely 
to  be  carried  away  with  schemes  for  free  title  to 
land  made  valuable  by  labor  or  general  division 
of  property.  With  men  owning  bank-shares  to 
procure  a  home,  and  women  casting  a  ballot  to 
protect  home,  popular  government  will  be  founded 
on  a  rock. 

It  has  been  said  that  some  men  spend  all  their 
lives  in  hunting  after  righteousness,  and  have  no 
spare  time  to  practise  it.  So  there  are  men  who, 
in  their  anxiety  to  be  important  and  distinguished 
personages,  fail  to  do  as  citizens  anything  to  make 
the  world  better  or  happier.  The  field  of  true 
citizenship  is  right  around  us. 

Loyal  to  the  nation,  and  willing  to  live  or  die  that 
it  may  endure ;  loyal  to  the  State,  and  ready  at  any 
sacrifice  to  maintain,  without  compromise  or  surren- 
der of  an  iota  of  its  reserved  rights,  —  we  yet  cling 
to  the  pavements  on  which  we  daily  walk,  and  to 
the  homes  upon  which  our  eyes  so  fondly  look. 
We  owe,  also,  loyal  regard  to  the  City  of  Boston. 
Our  estimable  fellow-citizen,  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  says  the  "  State  House  is  the  hub  of  the 


JULY    4,    1889.  37 

solar  system,  and  that  you  couldn't  pry  that  out 
of  a  Boston  man  if  you  had  the  tire  of  all  creation 
straightened  out  for  a  crow-bar."  We  all,  as  good 
Bostonians,  are  confident  of  the  close  relation  of  our 
city  with  the  universe.  Here  are  our  homes,  where 
most  of  our  lives  are  spent.  Here  we  worship 
God  unmolested.  Here  we  greet  friends  and  visit 
neighbors,  and  reap  from  existence  its  harvests  of 
joy.  Boston  is  no  mean  city.  She  is  adorned 
with  natural  charms.  Her  waters,  before  mingling 
with  the  Atlantic,  are  studded  with  picturesque 
islands.  On  her  southern  border  is  a  range  of 
hills  of  such  attractiveness  that  they  were  given 
by  the  explorer  who  first  mapped  New  England, 
in  1614:,  the  name  of  the  hills  endeared  to  his 
youth.  From  these  Blue  Hills  is  seen  the  ocean, 
with  its  busy  commerce;  and  there  are  dis- 
cerned indications  of  sunshine  and  storm.  Within 
our  bounds  flows  the  Neponset  from  enchanting 
meadows;  and  the  Charles,  winning  praise  from 
Longfellow's  verse,  winds  through  our  landscape 
to  the  sea.  Here  are  roads  smoother  than  the 
Appian  Way,  bordered  by  estates,  abodes  of 
wealth  and  refinement. 

Here  are  Museums  of  Art  and  of  Natural 
History,  and  here  is  our  Public  Library,  pioneer 
of    the   free   use    and    distribution    of   books,    and 


38  ORATION. 

in  volumes  second  only  to  the  library  at 
Washington.  For  this  institution  is  constructing 
a  building,  in  itself  a  work  of  art,  where  this 
complement  to  the  public  school  —  this  University 
of  the  people  —  in  its  new  home  will  more  than 
realize  the  hopes  of  its  founders.  It  is  fitting 
on  this  patriotic  day,  knowing  well  that  there  is 
no  future  for  our  country  without  intelligence,  to 
speak  of  this  great  auxiliary  to  free  learning. 
It  is  also  fitting  to  refer  to  our  fellow-citizens, 
the  trustees  of  the  Public  Library,  whose 
constant,  faithful,  unremunerative,  service  has 
brought  this  vast  trust  to  its  highest  usefulness, 
and  by  unceasing  attention,  will  deliver  to  the 
city  authorities  a  completed  structure,  where  our 
citizens,   within   its    spacious   walls,    can   say, — 

"  These  chosen  precincts,  set  apart 
For  learned  toil   and  holy  shrines, 
Yield  willing  homes  to   every  art 

That  trains  or  strengthens   or  refines." 

Here  are  romantic  drives,  arboretums,  play  and 
pleasure  grounds,  owned  by  and  free  to  the 
public,  and  here  are  shores  of  rocks  and  wide 
beaches  and  charming  heights  as  reserves  for 
enjoyment.  To  all  these  haunts  of  interest  and 
delight,    commodious   vehicles,    soon    to    be   moved 


JULY     4,     1889.  39 

with  speed  and  comfort  by  electricity  at  trifling- 
cost,  shall  bear  the  people.  Benjamin  Franklin 
was  born  in  Boston,  and  never  lost  his  love  for 
it.  He  sought  to  benefit  its  citizens  by  leaving 
funds  to  purchase  medals  for  deserving  scholars,  and 
to  provide  opportunities  for  worthy  young  persons 
to  start  in  life.  His  greatest  benefaction  will 
be  in  making  it  possible  to  get  the  best  return 
for  an  expenditure  of  five  cents. 

Franklin  is  famous  for  having  compelled  electric 
force  in  nature  to  obey  the  will  and  serve  the 
needs  of  man.  ~No  triumph  could  be  more  con- 
spicuous than  that  the  spark  coaxed  from  the 
skies  by  Franklin's  kite  should  become  the 
mightiest   servant   of  Franklin's   native    city. 

Here  also  are  the  inspiring  lessons  and 
memories  of  patriotism.  Here  is  the  Old  South 
Church,  where  the  child  Liberty  was  baptized; 
and  here  is-  Faneuil  Hall,  where  it  was  cradled 
and  rocked.  Here,  in  Roxbury,  is  the  home  of 
Warren,  and  on  Bunker  Hill  the  stately  pile 
where  Warren  fell.  Here  are  Dorchester  Heights, 
the  frowning  guns  on  which  compelled  the 
removal  of  the  British  army  on  the  17th  of 
March,  1776,  —  an  event  for  which  we  raise 
our  flag  on  each  returning  anniversary  to  com- 
memorate   the  first  victory  of  George  Washington 


40  ORATION. 

and  the  retreat  of  the  British  soldiers  from 
Boston  forever.  Everywhere  are  everlasting 
memorials  of  a  freedom-loving  people,  whose 
determined  action  on  the  British  Colonial  policy, 
when  the  cargo  of  the  "Romney"  was  cast  into 
the  harbor,  caused  Edmund  Burke  to  say,  "that 
so  paltry  a  sum  as  threepence  in  the  eyes  of  a 
financier,  and  so  insignificant  an  article  as  tea 
in  the  mind  of  the  philosopher,  have  shaken  the 
commercial  pillars  of  an  empire  that  circled  the 
globe." 

It  has  been  said  that  in  a  bygone  period  this  was 
the  city  of  one  sect,  and  now  it  is  the  city  of  an- 
other sect.  We  have  been  told  that  this  city,  in 
earlier  days,  was  the  Boston  of  one  race  of  men,  and 
now  it  is  the  Boston  of  another  race  of  men.  Boston 
is  the  city  of  the  American  citizen,  whatever  be  his 
sect,  or  race,  color,  or  condition.  Here  is  his  heri- 
tage, fair  and  great,  and  with  as  loud  calls  to  duty  to 
those  who  possess  it,  as  at  any  moment  since  John 
Winthrop,  in  1630,  came,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  to 
abide  here  to  plant  the  gospel  and  to  people  the 
country."  Never  in  the  history  of  Boston  was  there 
a  more  inspiring  sight  than  the  dedication  a  few 
weeks  ago  of  a  most  beautiful  section  of  Franklin 
Park  to  its  children,  for  all  time.  As  over  that 
emerald    plain    the    school   regiment    inarched   and 


JULY    4,     1889.  41 

manoeuvred,  and  as  thousands  on  thousands  of  pub- 
lic-school children  massed  around  the  flagstaff  and 
cheered  and  sang  "  America  "  as  the  old  flag  was  un- 
furled, it  did  not  strike  the  beholder  that  our  public- 
school  system  was  either  immoral  or  godless.  ~No 
one  could  look  upon  that  scene  without  being  con- 
vinced that  the  public  school  and  the  dignity  of 
citizenship  and  the  future  of  the  flag  and  the 
trained  force  to  successfully  meet  any  foe  were  as 
everlasting  as  intelligence,  as  virtue,  and  faith  in 
Almighty  God. 

The  one  thing  needful  for  this  honorable  city  is  a 
permanent  public  opinion  insisting  that  every  dollar 
of  the  eleven  millions  required  to  conduct  its  ordi- 
nary affairs  shall  give  an  honest  account  of  itself. 
It  does  not  make  the  slightest  difference  whether 
strict  accountability  is  brought  about  by  Democrats 
or  Republicans,  or  by  a  mixture  of  both  ;  it  does  make 
great  difference  whether  it  is  done  or  not  done. 
Wealth,  fame,  distinction,  Boston  now  has,  and  with 
an  administration  commensurate  with  her  means  and 
opportunities,  she  needs  no  more  to  prove  false  the 
statement  of  an  English  statesman,  that  America 
cannot  show  a  well-governed  city. 

It  is  in  cities  that  self-government  is  put  to 
the  severest  test,  and  in  them,  if  anywhere,  its  fail- 
ure  will    come.      Whoever   successfully  solves    our 


42  ORATION. 

municipal  problem  will  find  a  noble  place  in  onr  Val- 
halla. The  model,  industrious,  honest,  capable, 
mayor,  knowing  before  aught  else  the  welfare  of 
the  city,  will  be  an  American  benefactor.  A  step 
towards  an  exemplary  city  rule  has  already  been  taken 
in  Boston.  We  are  paying  our  bills  or  doing  without 
things.  Artemas  Ward  said,  "  I  will  live  on  my 
income  if  I  have  to  borrow  money  to  do  it."  That  is 
not  good  city  financiering ;  and  to  the  credit  of  Bos- 
ton, it  is  not  making  loans  to  piece  out  its  income. 

When  the  terse  sentence  of  Mayor  Hart  in 
his  inaugural  address,  "  that  no  law  or  ordinance 
can  ever  take  the  place  of  good  citizenship  or 
municipal  integrity,"  shall  be  made  the  text  of 
municipal  duty,  the  political  pestilence  of  cities 
shall  no  longer  be  the  bugbear  of  the  political 
moralist. 

We  cannot  all  be  mayors,  aldermen,  or  mem- 
bers of  the  council,  but  as  citizens  we  can  each 
do  something  to  relieve  the  reputation  of  great 
centres  as  nurseries  of  social  disorder  and  rottenness. 
If  anywhere  an  effort  should  be  made  to  have 
sound  local  government,  it  is  here,  where  liberty 
in  America  was  nurtured,  where  the  chord  was 
struck  that  led  to  the  Revolution,  where  the  first 
bold  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
lived;    here   in  Boston,  the   stronghold  of  national 


JULY    4,     1889.  43 

sentiment,    the    home     of    the    great    defender    of 
the    Constitution ;    here, 

"  Not  in  Utopia,    subterranean  fields 
On  some   secreted  island,   Heaven  knows  where, 
But  in  the  very  world,   which  is  the  world 
Of    all  of  us,   the  place  where  in  the   end 
We  find  our  happiness   or  not  at  all." 

Here,  in  Boston,  we  should  have  that  municipal 
cleanliness  that  is  the  hope  and  aim  of  honest 
and  wise  home  rule  to  secure.  This  is  the  obli- 
gation of  the  citizen  to  his  city,  his  country, 
and   his    God. 

~No  one  of  the  more  than  a  hundred  citizens 
who  have  performed  the  task  now  in  process  of 
being  fulfilled  has  omitted  to  recognize  the 
Almighty  power  that  has  shaped  our  career. 
One  of  them,  referring  to  the  battle  of  Lookout 
Mountain,  fought  above  the  clouds,  with  eloquence 
declared:  "It  is  my  faith  that  the  battle  of 
America  is  indeed  to  be  fought  and  won  far 
above  the  clouds."  From  the  time  that  the 
British  Port  Bill  pressed  Boston  so  hard  that 
George  Washington  offered  to  lead  a  regiment 
of  a  thousand  men  at  his  own  expense  to  relieve 
the  town's  distress,  until  now,  when  it  is  the  fourth 
in  wealth    and  fifth  in  population  of    the   cities    of 


44  ORATION. 

the  Union,  Providential  intervention  in  onr  history 
has  been  reverently  acknowledged.  ~No  plea  for 
the  blessing  of  Heaven  upon  onr  Republic  or  the 
American  States  shall  avail  unless  the  American 
citizen  does  what  lies  within  his  power  to  bless 
his  locality  by  worthy  public  and  private  example. 
Washington  asked,  "  Can  it  be  that  Providence 
has  not  connected  the  permanent  felicities  of  the 
nation    with   its    virtue  ?  Alas !    is 

it  rendered  impossible  by  its  vices?"  It  was  a 
cardinal  doctrine  with  Jefferson  that  "error  of 
opinion  can  be  tolerated  if  reason  be  left  free 
to  combat  it."  We  should  apply  the  unhampered 
reason,  free  from  the  restraints  of  tradition  or 
selfishness,  to  the  errors  of  policy  as  well  as 
opinion.  If  virtue  is  the  path  to  national  and 
social  safety,  if  vice  is  the  open  and  downward 
way  to  national  and  social  disaster,  then  to  hinder 
the  highest  attainment  of  virtue  and  to  encourage 
the  tendencies  of  vice  is  un-American.  When- 
ever, by  personal  influence,  or  choice  of  officials, 
or  passage  of  laws,  the  maximum  of  protection 
is  established,  and  the  minimum  of  danger  from 
the  elements  of  disorder  is  provided  for,  then  is 
recorded   a   victory   for   enlightened   citizenship. 

Character     in    individuals     and    in    communities 
lives.     Not  long  since  the  National  House  of  Rep- 


JULY     4,     1889.  45 

resentatives  did  great  honor  to  the  most  eminent 
living  citizen  of  Boston,  Hon.  Robert  C.  Win- 
throp.  Having  been  its  Speaker,  when  that  body 
received  his  portrait  to  be  hung  upon  the  walls  of 
the  Capitol,  the  occasion  called  out  earnest  praise 
of  our  distinguished  townsman,  and  ardent  enco- 
miums on  his  native  Commonwealth.  The  member 
from  Kentucky,  Mr.  Breckenridge,  in  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  speeches  ever  made  in  the  historic 
chamber,  said  concerning  the  sectional  contest 
which  grew  out  of  the  slavery  dispute:  "Massa- 
chusetts stepped  to  the  front,  and,  as  the  begin- 
ning of  the  leadership  in  that  tremendous  struggle, 
Nathaniel  Prentiss  Banks  became  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  though  Orr  followed 
him,  and  though  a  Democrat  was  elected  once 
more,  yet  practically  from  1855  to  1875  the  House 
of  Representatives  registered  the  decrees  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  the  Republic  of  America  followed 
the  lead  of  the  Old  Bay  Commonwealth.  .  .  . 
Massachusetts  led  America,  and  led  her  with  an 
audacity  and  an  aggressiveness,  with  a  skill  and 
counsel,  with  a  power  and  force,  that  has  never 
been  surpassed  in  all  the  tide  of  time  in  the  lead- 
ership of  a  great  people."  The  veteran  citizen, 
again  member  of  Congress,  is  with  us,  and  while 
his  life  is  spared,  freedom  of  man  and  the   honor 


46  ORATION. 

of  the  nation  will  have  in  him  a  friend  and  cham- 
pion. 

On  the  Fourth  of  July,  1876,  Boston  invited 
Hon.  Robert  C.  "Winthrop  to  be  its  orator.  His 
address  was  one  of  much  enthusiasm  and  histori- 
cal importance.  Amid  a  burst  of  applause,  in  com- 
menting upon  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  he 
presented  the  identical  desk  on  which  Jefferson 
wrote  the  glorious  document.  He  said,  with  much 
feeling,  "I  could  not  omit  to  urge  upon  every 
man  to  remember  that  self-government  politically 
can  only  be  successful  if  it  be  accompanied  by 
self-government  personally.  ...  I  could  not 
omit  to  caution  them  against  intemperance,  extrava- 
gance, and  luxury."  These  wise  and  patriotic 
words  are  a  bugle-call  to  fall  into  line  for  coming 
conflicts.  With  alarming  social  dangers  now  assail- 
ing us,  with  the  pomp  and  revel  of  Vanity  Fairs, 
and  the  enervating  debasement  of  affluence  and 
luxury,  Boston  has  not  yet  grappled.  The  Puritan 
self-denial  and  resolution,  the  uncompromising  at- 
tention to  the  sterner  issues  of  life  which  marked 
the  Bostonians  who  helped  to  throw  off  the  yoke 
of  Britain,  have  failed  to  be  developed  when  their 
descendants  are  looked  upon  to  throw  off  the  yoke 
of  servitude  to  selfish  usages  of  society. 

Boston  had  another  son  as  orator  on  the  Fourth 


JULY     4,     1889.  47 

of  July,  1845.  His  name  can  never  be  left  out 
when  chivalric  service  to  Massachusetts  and  un- 
yielding opposition  to  the  political  designs  of 
slavery  are  under  discussion.  Among  onr  illus- 
trious men  he  shines  with  unclouded  lustre, — 

"  A  pillar  of  the  State,    deep   on  his  front  engraved 
Deliberation  sat  and  public  care." 

Charles  Sumner  was  United  States  Senator  from 
1852  until  his  death.  In  his  oration,  in  1845,  he 
tenderly  spoke  of  his  native  city.  "Athens,"  said 
he,  "  has  been  called  the  eye  of  Greece.  Boston 
may  be  called  the  eye  of  America,  and  the  influence 
she  exerts  is  to  be  referred,  not  to  her  size,  for  there 
are  other  cities  larger  far,  but  to  her  moral  and 
intellectual  character."  Charles  Sumner  and  Robert 
C.  "Winthrop,  on  this  jubilant  day,  felt  called  to 
impress  upon  those  hearing  them  the  imperative 
obligations  of  moral  as  well  as  political  duties  of 
citizenship.  To  follow  such  guides  is  not  inappro- 
priate. There  can  be  no  patriotism,  no  genuine 
Americanism,  without  healthy  moral  control.  Offer- 
ing our  vows  upon  that  altar  where  the  citizen 
lays  his  sincerest  tribute  and  renders  his  holiest 
service,  to  crush  petty  ambitions  and  earthy  im- 
pulses, and  to  hold  fast  to  American  loyalty  and  all 
that  it  implies    without  exception  or  reservation  of 


48  ORATION. 

allegiance,  let  us  make  Boston  one  of  the  purest, 
as  it  is  one  of  the  most  prosperous,  of  American 
cities.  By  adherence,  without  why  or  wherefore, 
to  non-partisan  and  unsectarian  public  schools,  by 
unfaltering  fealty  to  State  and  nation,  by  with- 
holding from  evil  habits  the  countenance  of  ex- 
ample, and  from  evil  traffics  the  sanction  of  law, 
by  utmost  toleration  and  utmost  watchfulness  that 
toleration  is  not  abused,  by  protection  to  homes, 
and  by  conscientious  service  in  that  citizenship 
which  shows  love  to  God  in  striving  to  elevate 
men,  with  clean  hands  and  pure  hearts,  let  us 
make  Boston,  during  the  next  hundred  years,  as 
conspicuous  for  public  morality  as  in  the  century 
that  has  passed  it  has  been  renowned  for  its  ser- 
vice to  public  liberty. 

James  Bryce,  in  his  great  and  exhaustive  work 
on  the  American  Commonwealth,  speaks  of  our 
Republic  as  the  "Land  of  the  Future."  To  make 
our  land  what  it  should  be  will  demand  that  rev- 
erence for  law  and  moral  reenforcement  only  to  be 
obtained  by  the  vote  of  woman  on  municipal  and 
moral  issues.  Our  country  will  be  the  ideal  land, 
when  one-half  of  the  Republic  now  deprived  of 
suffrage  shall  have  something  to  do  and  to  say 
about  local  laws  and  rulers  —  and  national  mat- 
ters    and     national     men,    if    it    will     accept    the 


JULY     4,     1889.  49 

responsibility.  The  participation  of  woman  in  the 
management  of  the  locality  is  a  necessity  of  good 
government.  It  reaches  the  climax  of  absurdity 
to  maintain  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
applies  to  half  of  the  people  by  proxy.  Boston, 
at  a  distant  day,  when  it  numbers  three-fourths 
of  a  million  souls,  and  sums  up  its  real  and  per- 
sonal estate  by  billions,  may  invite  one  of  its 
daughters  to  address  its  people  on  the  Fourth  of 
July. 

With  representatives  of  her  sex  distributed  in 
official  relations  for  which  woman  is  adapted,  it  will 
be  taught  then  more  fully  than  now  that  it  is 
undemocratic  and  unrepublican  to  rule  the  whole 
peojne  by  half  of  its  numbers.  Woman  in  this 
world  gives  much,  as  well  as  man,  to  religion,  to 
country,  to  civilization;  and  why  not  to  govern- 
ment ?  When  the  personal  purity  and  high  re- 
gard for  character  by  which  woman  regulates  and 
elevates  home  become  factors  in  rule  of  munici- 
j)alities,  the  most  exalted  standard  of  duty 
will  be  approached.  The  most  flagrant  heresy 
to  human  nature  and  human  rights  is  to  re- 
strict suffrage  to  men  because  in  war  they  bear 
arms.  It  is  a  tribute  to  muscle.  The  mother  who 
bears  in  her  arms  the  children  who  are  to  make 
the    future    of    America    has,    in    her    duties    and 


50  ORATION. 

affections,  the  highest  human  incentive  to  cast 
an  intelligent  ballot.  When  for  local  duty  it  is 
in  her  hand,  then  the  spirit  which  animated  the 
city  of  the  Adamses,  the  Quincys,  and  the  Han- 
cocks in  the  days  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  the 
city  of  Sumner  and  Phillips  and  Andrew  in  the 
days  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act,  will  compel  Bos- 
ton to  take  a  step  forward  in  that  warfare  of 
all  races  and  all  ages,  —  the  struggle  of  the  best 
against  the  worst,  by  which  alone  the  evils  of 
society  can  be  overcome.  When,  in  this  noble 
municipality,  the  organized  power  for  good  shall 
so  overmatch  as  to  overmaster  the  combined  forces 
of  wrong,  then,  more  than  the  peal  of  bells 
and  roar  of  cannon  and  triumphant  outburst  over 
evacuation  of  hostile  troops  from  Boston  in  1776, 
or  from  New  York  in  1783;  more  than  the  joy 
over  the  formation  of  the  Federal  Union  and 
presidency  of  Washington  in  1789;  more  than  the 
wild  rapture  over  the  return  of  victorious  legions 
with  their  war-worn  standards  in  1865,  —  shall  be 
the  loud  applause  of  mankind  over  the  moral  and 
municipal  advancement,  making  this  fair  city, 
where  is  garnered  our  affection, 

"The  foremost  of  fair  Freedom's  cause, 
The  chief  of  Virtue's  band." 

A  city  where 


JULY     4,     18  89.  51 

"  Man  is  more 
Precious  than  the  gold  of  Ophir ; " 

where  law  in  all  its  majesty  is  the  bulwark  of 
family  and  its  fondest  hopes  ;  where  moral  force 
and  influence  protect  the  inmate  of  the  cradle 
and  the  footsteps  of  youth,  as  the  flaming  sword 
guarded  Paradise  from  persistent  evil ;  where 
freighted  ships,  that  fly  to  and  fro  over  oceans, 
as  shuttles  weaving  the  web  of  international  unity, 
unlade  their  wealth;  where  stores  of  coin  and  mer- 
chandise are  poured  into  the  lap  of  enterprise;  and 
the  song  of  contented  labor  rises  from  countless 
hives  of  industry,  and  lordly  residences  increase  on 
spacious  and  costly  boulevards,  and  music  of  happy 
households  is  heard,  and  crowded  seats  of  learn- 
ing grow  in  distinction  and  power; —  in  such  a 
city  shall  all  the  unconceived  brilliance  and  bene- 
faction of  material  prosperity  dwarf  beside  that 
climax  of  praise  awarded  by  the  poet  Whittier  to 
Sumner :  — 

"His  Statecraft  was  the  Golden  Rule, 
His  right  to  vote  a  sacred  trust ; 
Clear'  over  threat  and  ridicule, 
We  heard  his  challenge,  'Is  it  just?'" 

A  praise  yet  to  become  the  blameless  record 
of  millions  upon  millions  of  upright,  honorable, 
God-fearing    American   citizens. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX. 


Beginning  with  the  year  1783,  and  coming  down  to  the  present 
year,  1889,  one  hundred  and  seven  Fourth  of  July  orations  have 
been    delivered    before   the   authorities,    first    of   the   town,    and 
then  of    the  city,  of   Boston.      The   series   is   continuous,    and, 
though  neither  so  valuable  bibliographically,  nor  so  well  known 
historically,   as  the    Massachusetts   Election,  the  Artillery  Elec- 
tion, or   the   Convention   Sermons,  —  all  of   which  antedate   the 
Fourth  of  July  Oration, — it  is,  nevertheless,  not  without  interest 
to  history  and  literature,  as  a  reminder  that  there  is  much  con- 
servative force  in  our   old   and  well-established    customs.      The 
Orations   to  commemorate  the  Boston   Massacre  were   regularly 
delivered    from    the    year    1771-1783,    when    it    was    voted    in 
Town-meeting,  on  March  5  of  the  latter  year,  to  substitute  the 
celebration    of    the    Declaration    of    Independence    for    that    of 
the   Massacre.      This    interesting    continuity    excited    the   warm 
admiration  of  John  Adams,  who  said,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Morse, 
that   he    had   read   as   many   of   the   orations   as   he   had   seen, 
and  "scarcely  ever  with  dry  eyes."     The  names  of  the  orators, 
as  a  rule,  show  that  judicious  selection  has  been  made,  —  most 
of  those   chosen   being  men   of    real    prominence    and    ability. 
Though  some   famous  names  are  missing,  —  noticeably  those  of 
Fisher    Ames,    Webster,     Choate,    and    Cushing,  —  yet,    as    a 
whole,    the    list   represents    the    best    that    the    city   could    put 
forth   from   year   to   year. 


56  OEATION. 

Only  two  persons  have  delivered  orations  more  than  once 
upon  this  occasion :  the  elder  Quincy  in  1798  and  1826,  and 
George  Ticknor  Curtis  in  1841  and  1862. 

The  Boston  Fourth  of  July  orations  have,  to  a  remarkable 
degree,  been  wont  to  express  the  honest,  fearless  opinions  of 
those  who  have  delivered  them,  although  that  freedom  of  speech 
incident  to  the  fierce  strife  which  attended  the  downfall  of  the 
national  Federalist  party  could  not  now  be  tolerated,  so  little  was 
it  lifted,  even  on  this  unpolitical  occasion,  above  mere  rancor. 
The  oration  has  frequently  afforded  an  opportunity  to  free  the 
mind  upon  all  sorts  of  national,  civil,  and  social  reforms. 
Anti-slavery,  woman  suffrage,  temperance,  —  all  themes  dear  to 
the  American  citizen,  — have  been  largely  discussed  on  this  plat- 
form, and  it  is  the  farthest  possible  from  the  truth  to  suppose 
that  "gush"  has  been  the  predominating  characteristic. 

It  has  been  customary  for  the  town  or  city  to  request  of 
each  orator  a  copy  of  his  address  for  the  press ;  and,  no  matter 
what  the  substance,  his  effort  is  always  referred  to  in  such 
complimentary  terms  as  "  spirited  and  elegant,"  "  eloquent 
and  impressive,"  and  other  expressions  of   satisfaction. 

There  were,  in  years  past,  other  Fourth  of  July  orations  in 
Boston  besides  those  delivered  before  the  "  authorities."  No 
extended  account  may  be  given  of  them  here,  but  a  mention 
of  some  of  them  seems  necessary.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  they 
were  to  the  full  just  as  patriotic  and  eloquent  as  those  of  the 
"regular"  series.  In  the  year  1787,  John  Brooks  spoke  before 
the  Massachusetts  Society  of  the  Cincinnati;  in  1788,  William 
Hull ;  in  1789,  Samuel  Whitwell ;  and  in  1790,  William  Tudor,  in 
which  year  the  oration  before  this  society  ceased,  although  other 
customs  were  still  kept  up.  Party  feeling  never  ran  higher 
than  it   did    from    Adams's    administration    to    the    end    of    the 


APPENDIX.  57 

War  of  1812,  when  Federalism,  even  in  Massachusetts,  became 
practically  extinct.  The  Young  Republicans,  no  doubt  in  a 
spirit  of  protest  against  the  prevailing  Federalism  of  the  early 
orations,  required  Fourth  of  July  orations  of  their  own,  and 
in  1805  were  addressed  by  Ebenezer  French,  in  1806  by 
Joseph  Grleason,  and  in  1808  by  Charles  Pinckney  Sumner.  In 
1808  the  Federal  selectmen  refused  the  use  of  Faneuil  Hall  to 
the  Republicans  of  Boston  for  their  national  celebration,  and, 
as  a  result,  the  Bunker  Hill  Association  was  promptly  formed. 
David  Everett  and  William  Charles  White  spoke  before  the 
Association  in  1809,  Daniel  Waldo  in  1810,  and  Henry  A.  S. 
Dearborn  in  1811.  These  departures  from  the  chief  rhetorical 
event  of  the  National  day  were  all  of  them  sporadic  and  tem- 
porary. Perhaps  the  address  which  for  some  time  held  most 
successful  rivalry  with  the  civic  one  was  that  delivered  before 
the  Washington  Benevolent  Society  during  most  of  the  years 
from  1815  to  1837.1  A  few  scattering  orations,  without  special 
significance,  were  Joseph  Bartlett's  in  1823 ;  James  Davis 
Knowles's  in  1828,  before  the  Baptist  Churches  of  Boston ;  Will- 
iam Foster  Otis's  in  1831,  before  the  young  men  of  Boston; 
Edward  Goldsborough  Prescott's  in  1832,  for  the  Boston  regi- 
ment ;  Caleb  Cushing's  in  1833,  for  the  American  Colonization 
Society ;  Theophilus  Fiske's  in  1835,  for  the  Trades  Union ; 
David  Henshaw's  in  1836,  before  an  Assembly  of  citizens  in 
Faneuil  Hall;  and  William  Lloyd  Garrison's  in  1838,  before  the 


1 1815,  William  Gale, 
1816,  Asher  Ware, 

1819,  Samuel  Adams  Wells, 

1820,  Henry  Orne, 

1821,  George  Fairbanks, 

1823,  Russell  Jarvis, 

1824,  John  Everett, 


1826,  David  Lee  Child, 
1S2S,  Joseph  Hardy  Prince, 

1829,  Charles  Gordon  Greene, 

1830,  Henry  Barney  Smith, 

1832,  Andrew  Dunlap, 

1833,  John  Wade, 
1837,  Edward  Cruft,  Jr. 


58  ORATION. 

Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery  Society.  In  1833  Amasa  Walker 
spoke  before  the  Young  Men's  Societies  of  Boston,  twelve  of 
which  societies  were  represented  in  a  procession  which  at- 
tended the  ceremonies.  Frederick  Robinson  spoke  before  the 
Trades  Union  on  July  4,  1834,  a  day  of  special  significance  to 
laboring  men,  because  on  it  first  took  effect  the  new  law  for 
the  abolition  of  imprisonment  for  debt.  In  1858,  besides  the 
regular  oration  by  John  S.  Holmes,  Rufus  Choate  delivered 
another  before  the  Democratic  Young  Men's  Celebration  at 
Tremont  Temple.  The  year  previous,  the  Rev.  W.  R.  Alger 
had  termed  as  an  act  of  "  flunkeyism "  the  introduction  of 
James  M.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  author  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  and  the  eulogizer  of  Preston  S.  Brooks,  to  a  Massachu- 
setts audience  at  Bunker  Hill,  on  the  17th  of  June.  To  re- 
buke this  frankness  was  one  object  of  the  celebration.  A  very 
tart  article  appeared  in  the  "Atlantic  Monthly"  for  August, 
1858,  entitled  "The  Pocket  Celebration  of  the  Fourth."  It  is 
no  secret  now  that  this  witty  and  forcible  attack  on  Mr. 
Choate  was  from  the  pen  of  James  Russell  Lowell. 

Boston  has  had  one  mad  orator,  the  more  than  eccentric 
William  Emmons,  who,  in  1826,  had  his  oration  and  poem 
printed  and  for  sale  immediately  upon  their  delivery. 

I  have  been  indebted  largely  to  James  Spear  Loring's  "Hun- 
dred Boston  Orators"  (Boston,  1852),  in  which  is  given  the 
first  list  of  Boston  Fourth  of  July  orators  of  which  I  am 
aware.  In  the  Municipal  Register  for  1889  is  given  another 
list  to  date,  in  which  there  is  no  attempt  to  furnish  the  full 
name  of  each  orator.  These  lists  have  been  given  for  some 
years  back  in  the  Register.  It  being  nearly  forty  years  since 
Mr.  Loring's  list  was  made,  I  have  ventured  to  present  the 
following,  knowing  from  experience  how  useful  are  the  similar, 


APPENDIX.  59 

though  more  elaborate,  lists  of  the  Massachusetts  Election  Ser- 
mons, by  Mr.  H.  H.  Edes,1  and  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Election  Sermons,  by  Capt.  A.  A.  Folsom.2  A  com- 
plete file  of  the  Fourth  of  July  Orations  as  published  is  in 
the  Library  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  Another 
excellent,  though  not  yet  complete,  set  is  in  the  Boston  Public 
Library.  It  lacks  at  present  eleven  of  the  printed  orations.  It 
should  be  added  that  three  of  the  orations,  those  for  1806,  1812, 
and  1852,  have  never  been  printed.  There  is  hardly  need  to 
say  that  I  am  aware  that  this  note  and  list  should  be  far  better 
than  they  are,  and  that  I  shall  be  pleased,  with  true  biblio- 
graphical humility,  to  receive  corrections  and  additions. 

I  must  not  forget  to  thank  Dr.  Samuel  A.  Green,  to  whom 
no  one  who  needs  help  in  such  matters  as  these  ever  turns  in 
vain.  Judge  Chamberlain,  of  the  Boston  Public  Library,  has 
also  been  so  kind  as  to  help  me. 

LINDSAY   SWIFT. 

1783. — "Warren,  John. 

1784. — Hichborn,  Benjamin. 

1785. — Gardiner,  John. 

1786. — Austin,  Jonathan  Loring. 

1787.  — Dawes,  Thomas. 

1 788.  —  Otis,  Harrison  Gray. 

1789.  —  Stillman,  Samuel. 
1790. — Gray,  Edward. 
1791. — Crafts,  Thomas,  Jr. 

1  At  the  end  of  O.  E.  Grinnell's  Election  sermon  for  1871;  there  are  earlier  lists  of  the 
Election  sermons  by  David  Osgood  in  1809,  by  Andrew  Bigelow  in  1836,  by  John  Pierce 
in  1849,  and  by  A.  H.  Quint  in  1866. 

2  In  the  later  years  of  the  Annual  record  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery 
Company. 


60  ORATION. 

1792.  —  Blake,  Joseph,  Jr. 
1793. — Adams,  John  Quinct. 
1794. — Phillips,  John. 
1795. — Blake,  George. 
1796.  —  Lathrop,  John. 
1797. — Callender,  John. 

1798.  —  Quinct,  Josiah. 

1 799.  —  Lowell,  John.1 

1800.  —  Hall,  Joseph. 

1801.  —  Paine  ,  Charles  . 

1802.  —  Emerson,  William. 

1803.  —  Sullivan,  William. 

1804.  —  Danforth,  Thomas.2 
1805. — Dutton,  Warren. 

1806.  —  Channing,  Francis  Dana.3 

1807.  —  Thacher,  Peter  Oxenbridge. 

1808.  —  Ritchie,  Andrew,  Jr.2 

1809.  — Tudor,  William. 

1810.  —  Townsend,  Alexander. 

1811.  —  Savage,  James.2 

1812.  —  Pollard,  Benjamin.3 

1813.  —  Livermore,  Edward  St.  Loe. 

1814.  —  Whitwell,  Benjamin. 

1815.  —  Shaw,  Lemuel. 

1816.  —  Sullivan,  George.2 

1817.  —  Channing,  Edward  Tyrrell. 


1  Federalist  to  an  extreme.     "Let  us  treat  with  Frenchmen,  only  at  the  point  of  our 
bayonets."     "  Adams,  Law,  and  Liberty  "  is  his  rallying  cry. 

2  There  is  a  second  edition. 

8 Not  printed. 

4  On  February  26,  1811,  Peter  Thacher  took  the  name  of  Peter  Oxenbridge  Thacher. 
(List  of  persons  whose  names  have   been  changed  in  Massachusetts.     1780-1883.    p.  23.) 


APPENDIX.  61 

1818.  —  Gray,  Francis  Calley. 
1819. — Dexter,  Franklin. 

1820.  —  Lyman,  Theodore. 

1821.  —  Loring,  Charles  Greely.0 

1822.  —  Gray,  John  Chipman.8 

1823.  —  Curtis,  Charles  Pelham. 

1824.  —  Bassett,  Francis. 

1825.  —  Sprague,  Charles. 

1826.  —  Quincy,  Josiah. 

1827.  —  Mason,  William  Powell. 

1828.  —  Sumner,  Bradford. 

1829. — Austin,  James  Trecothick. 

1830.  —  Everett,  Alexander  Hill. 

1831.  —  Palfrey,  John  Gorham. 

1832.  —  Quincy,  Josiah,  Jr. 

1833. — Prescott,  Edward  Goldsborough. 

1834.  —  Fay,  Richard  Sullivan. 

1835.  —  Hillard,  George  Stillman. 

1836.  —  Kinsman,  Henry  Willis. 

1837.  —  Chapman,  Jonathan. 

1838.  —  Winslow,  Hubbard.     "The   means  of   the  per- 

petuity and  prosperity  of  our  Republic." 

1839.  —  Austin,  Ivers  James. 

1840.  —  Power,  Thomas. 

1841.  —  Curtis,  George  Ticknor.       "The   true   uses   of 

American  revolutionary  history." 

1842.  —  Mann,  Horace. 

1843. — Adams,  Charles  Francis. 


5  There  is  a  second  edition. 

6  The  first  oration  under  the  new  city  charter. 


62  OEATION. 

1844.  —  Chandler,  Peleg  Whitman.      "The    morals   of 

freedom." 

1845.  —  Sumner,    Charles.7      "  The     true    grandeur    of 

nations." 
1846. — Webster,  Fletcher. 

1847.  —  Cary,  Thomas  Greaves. 

1848.  —  Giles,  Joel.     "Practical  liberty." 

1849. — Greenough,  William  Whitwell.  "The  con- 
quering republic." 

1850.  —  Whipple,  Edwin  Percy.8  "  Washington  and  the 
principles  of  the  Revolution." 

1851. — Russell,  Charles  Theodore. 

1852. — King,  Thomas  Starr.9 

1853.  —  Bigelow,  Timothy.10 

1854.  —  Stone,  Andrew  Leete.11 
1855. — Miner,  Alonzo  Ames. 

1856.  —  Parker,  Edward  Griffin.     "The  lesson  of  '76 

to  the  men  of  '56." 

1857.  —  Alger,   William   Rounseville.12      "The   genius 

and  posture  of  America." 

1858.  —  Holmes,  John  Somers. 


7  This  was  one  of  the  longest  (96  pp.)  as  well  as  the  best  known  of  all  these  orations. 
It  passed  through  three  editions  in  Boston  and  one  in  London,  and  was  answered  in  a 
pamphlet  (Remarks  upon  an  oration  delivered  by  Charles  Sumner  .  .  .,  July  4th,  1845. 
By  a  citizen  of  Boston) . 

8  There  is  a  second  edition.    (Boston  :  Ticknor,  Reed,  and  Fields.    1850.    49  pp.   12°.) 

9  Not  printed. 

10  This,  and  a  number  of  the  succeeding  orations,  contain  the  speeches,  toasts,  etc.,  at 
the  dinner  customarily  held  in  Faneuil  Hall  on  this  occasion. 

11  There  is  a  second  edition. 

a2As  many  as  four  editions  were  printed  in  1857.  (Boston:  Office  Boston  Daily  Bee. 
60  pp.)  Not  until  Nov.  17, 1864,  was  Mr.  Alger  asked  by  the  Common  Council  to  furnish  a 
copy  for  the  press.  He  granted  the  request,  and  the  first  official  edition  (J.  E.  Farwell 
&  Co.,  printers.  1864.  53  pp.)  was  then  printed.  It  lacks  the  interesting  preface  and  appen- 
dix of  the  contemporary  editions. 


APPENDIX.  63 

1859.  —  Sumner,  George.13 

1860.  —  Everett,  Edward. 
1861. — Parsons,  Theophilus. 
1862.  —  Curtis,  George  Ticknor. 
1863. — Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell.14 

1864.  —  Russell,  Thomas. 

1865.  —  Manning,  Jacob    Merrill.     "Peace   under   lib- 

erty." 

1866.  —  Lothrop,  Samuel  Kirkland. 

1867.  —  Hepworth,  George  Hughes. 

1868. — Eliot,  Samuel.     "The  function  of  a  city." 
1869. — Morton,  Ellis  Wesley. 

1870.  —  Everett,  William. 

1871.  —  Sargent,  Horace  Binney. 

1872.  —  Adams,  Charles  Francis,  Jr. 

1873.  —  Ware,  John  Fothergill  Waterhouse. 

1874.  —  Frothingham,  Richard. 
1875. — Clarke,  James  Freeman. 
1876. — Winthrop,  Robert  Charles.15 

1877.  —  Warren,  William  Wirt. 

1878.  —  Healy,  Joseph. 

1879.  —  Lodge,  Henry  Cabot. 

1880.  —  Smith,  Robert  Dickson.16 


13 There  is  another  edition.  (Boston:  Rockwell  &  Churchill,  city  printers,  1882.  46  pp.) 
It  omits  the  Dinner  at  Faneuil  Hall,  Correspondence,  and  Events  of  the  celebration. 

14  There  is  an  edition  of  twelve  copies.  (J.  E.  Farwell  &  Co.,  printers,  1863.  (7), 
71  pp.)  It  is  "  the  first  draft  of  the  author's  address,  turned  into  larger,  legible  type,  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  rendering  easier  its  public  delivery."  It  was  done  by  "  the  liberality  of  the 
City  Committee,"  and  is,  typographically,  the  handsomest  of  these  orations.  The  regular 
edition  is  in  60  pp.,  octavo  size. 

16  There  is  a  large-paper  edition  of  fifty  copies  printed  from  this  type,  and  also  an 
edition  —  Boston  :  press  of  John  Wilson  &  Son,  1876.    55  pp.    8°. 

10  On  Samuel  Adams,  a  statue  of  whom,  by  Miss  Anne  Whitney,  had  just  been  com- 
pleted for  the  city.    A  photograph  of  the  statue  is  added. 


64  ORATION. 

1881. — Warren,  George  Washington.      "Our  republic 
—  liberty  and  equality  founded  in  law." 

1882.  — Long,  John  Davis. 

1883.  —  Carpenter,  Henry  Bernard.     "American   char- 

acter and  influence." 

1884.  —  Shepard,  Harvey  Newton. 

1885.  —  Gargan,  Thomas  John. 

1886.  —  Williams,  George  Frederick. 

1887.  —  Fitzgerald,  John  Edward. 

1888. — Dillaway,  William  Edward  Lovell. 
1889.  —  Swift,  John  Lindsay.17      ["  The  American  citi- 
zen."] 

17  Contains  a  list  of  Boston  Fourth  of  July  orations,  from  1783  to  1889,  inclusive. 


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